Black Prospect
by pebblekit
Summary: FE9 Oneshot taking place one year after the war. Rolf is really tired of everyone treating him like a kid. Basically, a battle ensues and Rolf discoveres what a certain subject really means


Black Prospect

_Pebblekit: _Hello everyone! I'm Pebblekit and this is my first ever fanfic. I ask you of one simple thing. IF YOU READ THIS, EVEN IF YOU DON'T FINISH, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!!!! The only reason for this is that I have another fic in mind that isn't a oneshot, but I need to know if there's anything I need to work on in my writing before I try to post it.

Also, this is a good opportunity to ask people about something, people that I don't know and that won't try and baby me. So I ask you to tell me how my writing is, style, anything I'm weak at, grammar, and anything (if there is anything) that I'm good at…

Seriously guys (referring to girls as well for those of you who want all their ducks in a row), even total flames would be very helpful. I'm trying to write a book and I kinda need it know if my writing stinks. Also, there will never be any yaoi, yuri, or cussing on any of my stories unless I have a random act of courage in defying my parents, my best friend, AND my own morals. Sorry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the characters, the places mentioned, or anything having to do with or related to the game.

Rolf gazed up at the puffy clouds slowly rolling by over his head. The sun was beating down on the landscape below it, engulfing his body in warm light.

"Rolf!" A voice came from the direction of the stone about twenty feet from his left. The boy sat up and squinted, trying to see who had called him. It was Boyd, his older brother.

"What is it?" He called back.

"We have a job. Ike wants you to go as well."

Rolf widened his eyes in surprise and almost immediately wished that he hadn't as the sun's light blinded him. Standing up and rubbing his eyes with his callused fingers, Rolf slowly made his way toward his brother. "Ike wants me to go? That's unusual."

"Yes it is." Rolf still couldn't see, but he could definitely hear the disapproving tone in his brother's voice. Looking up, he could see the blurred form of Boyd's frowning face.

"Boyd, do you really want me to stay here that much?" Rolf head meant the phrase as a joke, but Boyd took it as a serious question.

"Yes I do. I hate it when you fight. Every time an enemy moves, I can't help but think that he or she might hurt you or worse…"

"Boyd… Do you really think that?" Boyd nodded. "Do you… Do you worry about Oscar this much too? Because we can take care of ourselves when we're fighting. You know that, don't you?"

"No, I don't know if you can watch out for yourself. To put it bluntly, you're an archer. No matter how good a shot you have, you don't have a good defense. Besides, you're just a kid; you shouldn't be out on the battle field. And no, I don't usually worry about Oscar because, well you know, he's… Oscar."

Rolf looked away from his brother. "We've been through this before. Can we please not talk about it now?"

"But Rolf, you-"

"I don't want to hear it, okay?" With that, Rolf ran past his brother toward the mercenary stronghold. He could hear Boyd yelling behind him, but he didn't stop. He was tired of the way Boyd treated him like a child. Soren did it to. Even Titania babied him a little when a battle got tough. He wished they would just stop acting like he couldn't take care of himself. Nobody seemed to bother Mist nearly as much about her age as they did him. Maybe it was because she was the sister of their commander.

Still fuming about the subject, Rolf walked headlong into Gatrie. "Hey, watch where you're going kid!" Gatrie took a step back in surprise. He probably would have jumped if not for the heavy armor that covered about every inch his body except for his head because he had taken his helmet off.

"Sorry. I didn't see you." Rolf knew it was a bad excuse, but he couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment.

"You didn't see me?" Gatrie asked in disbelief, "In this armor?! Fat chance!"

"Yes, almost as fat as you." Rolf looked at the owner of the voice. Shinon was occupying the space next to Gatrie. They had probably been talking a moment ago.

"Yeah! Almost as fat as…Wait a minute!" Gatrie was clearly not one of the brightest bulbs in the box.

"So, uh, where are you two going?" Rolf saw Boyd heading his way and he wanted to have an excuse not to talk to him at the moment.

"Ike ordered us to go find some people to take with us on a mission. He said something about being sure to take a certain person with us. …. …………. Uh… Shinon… who did he ask to take with us?"

Shinon sighed in exasperation. "He told us to take Rolf."

"Oh. OKAY!!!!" Gatrie started looking around as though looking for something… or someone.

Shinon sighed again. "Rolf, do you have your bow with you?"

"I always do." Rolf said, holding up his bow to show the sniper.

"Good. Now all we have to do is find two other people to go with us."

"I will." Shinon and Rolf looked around to see Boyd heading their way. Gatrie had left by now in pursuit of Titania as she was a girl. That's Gatrie for you. Nobody paid any mind to the fact that he was now absent… Or they just didn't care enough to notice that he was gone.

"Actually Boyd, Ike said he wanted to see you." Shinon said with little more emotion than the Black Knight. "Looks as though you'll have to sit this battle out."

Boyd said something under his breath and glanced at his little brother. Rolf hadn't heard what he had said, but he guessed that it was a particularly nasty word that I will not write down. The dark green haired warrior stomped off in the direction of the front entrance to the mercenary fort, no doubt guessing the he would find his commander inside.

"So… any preference as to whom else we should bring?" Shinon asked as Boyd left their company.

"How about Mia? She hasn't left camp for awhile and we might need a good sword wielder." Rolf suggested.

Shinon nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. Now we need to decide If we should take a healer with us or another fighter. Ike said that the problem was just a few bandits ransacking a small town. Do you think we could get by on just vulenaries and elixirs?"

"If we do that, we should take someone that has a high defense and can take a lot of damage, like Gatrie." Rolf answered thinking hard. No one had ever asked him his opinion on a battle team before. Shinon stared at him. "What?"

"Nothing." The older man said, turning away. "I just didn't expect someone of your intellect to think of that. You're smarter than you look." Shinon walked away after this statement, leaving Rolf in a state of complete shock. Shinon had never given him praise on anything outside the realm of archery. Never.

When the boy caught up with the older man just outside the outer perimeter of the right side of the stronghold, the sniper was talking to Mia, who was literally bouncing with excitement, Gatrie, who kept glancing longingly at the horse stables, presumably where Titania was, and Oscar, who nodding intently. Rolf ran over to them. "There you are Rolf!" Gatrie exclaimed when he saw the lime-green haired kid approaching them. "We've been looking everywhere for you! We have a-"

"-mission. I know."

"Well now that we're all here, let's head off!" Gatrie turned around and started walking off toward the sea of trees that bordered the fort.

"Gatrie, you do realize that the town is that way, don't you?" Shinon asked, pointing in the completely opposite direction than the one that Gatrie was heading.

Gatrie looked around and turned a deep shade of red as Titania emerged from the horse stables. "I-I knew that. I was just… just testing you!" Shinon sighed again, as one would a lot what with a best friend like a certain blue armored doofus.

"So, how far exactly is the town?" Rolf asked as they walked through the forest.

"Not far," It was Oscar, his oldest brother who answered him. "We're about halfway there now. Rolf pondered this for awhile as the team trudged on. Mia kept tripping out of her excitement because she hadn't been on a mission for a long time.

Finally, Rolf worked up the courage to ask the question that he had been stuck in his mind for a long time now. _But what if he gets mad at me? _Rolf thought to himself. He quickly dismissed the thought in order to stop himself from changing his mind. "Hey… uncle Shinon?"

"Yes Rolf?"

"Uncle Shinon? Since when has he called you that?" Gatrie asked.

"Since the beginning of the war a year ago." Oscar answered. Rolf grinned. He remembered when his oldest brother had heard the archer call Shinon that for the first time. He had definitely been shocked, that was for sure. Even more so when Shinon had answered without complaint. Rolf still could see Oscar falling off his horse in surprise. "Um… why did Ike want me to come?"

Shinon glanced at the child behind him and hesitated. "I think… He wanted to see how you would cope in a situation when at least one of your brothers wasn't there. Up until now, all of you missions have been with both Oscar and Boyd present, or they were at least nearby. That's why he made sure Boyd wouldn't go."

"… But why? He never sent Mist on a mission to see how well she would do without him." Rolf had a bad thought. What if Ike was starting to baby him as well? Maybe the commander thought that the younger boy just couldn't get by without his brothers there. Rolf tried not to quiver with anger at the thought that Ike didn't trust him in battle enough to send him out alone.

"Well, what you've got to understand is this," Gatrie said, his eyes on Mia's backside. "Mist is a lot older than you, right?"

"What?" Rolf was caught off guard by the question.

"You see, when you reach the teenager age, thirteen, people start to trust you more. You're still far from that age, so I think Ike was just worried. Commander Greil probably would have been too."

"Um, Gatrie?" Oscar started. His voice was full of surprise.

"Yeah?" Gatrie wasn't paying much attention. He was still watching Mia, who had just tripped over a tree root. She stood up again as though nothing had happened, still actually shaking with excitement.

"Um… about Rolf…" Oscar broke off, looking for the right words to say.

"You got that all wrong." Shinon broke in. Rolf was surprised to hear the discomfort in his voice as he addressed his old friend."

"What do you mean?" Gatrie's voice was dreamy.

At this point, Mia turned around and started walking backwards. "Rolf isn't that young," she said, her face all the sudden serious. Everyone tripped in their surprise, even Oscar's horse, whom his owner walking across the leaf strewn ground. Nobody had noticed or even paid a second thought to the prospect of Mia listening to what they were saying.

"He isn't? You're just pulling my leg Mia. He's a good three years younger than Mist, isn't he? If not, four!" Gatrie seemed to have full confidence in what he was saying.

"Um… actually… he's not." Oscar kept glancing at Rolf. The boy had always been sensitive about his size, though he never showed it much. He always felt awkward when someone mistook his younger brother for being younger than he was because Rolf seemed to take it as a personal insult sometimes.

"What do you mean? Is he only two years younger?" Shock spread all across Gatrie's face as he said this.

"Actually, I'm only half a year younger than her," Rolf spoke up. He was looking directly at Gatrie. Anger blurred his vision as he revealed the truth.

"What?! No way! You're all just making fun of my intellast!"

"It's _intellect, _and no we're not." Shinon looked as though he were about to say more, but he hesitated and instead threw a quick look at Oscar, who nodded.

"He's older than you think he is." Oscar voice was strange with some kind of emotion. Maybe it was… worry?

"When you guys met me in that old fortress, he had already been twelve for a few months," Mia looked dead serious.

(Flashback) "_Hey! Little boy! You're those two's brother, right? Wow, you're really cute for your age!" Mia pointed back at Oscar and Boyd, her were talking to Shinon. This was before commander Greil had died. _

_Rolf turned to Mist. "Do I really look that young?"_

"_Um… maybe? You've got to think that I've known you for awhile, so I know you're older than you look. But she just joined the team, so she might not realize that she's mistaken."_

"_What do you mean? You're like, ten, right?" Mia was sure hyper throughout the course of the war, that was for sure. _

"_No, I'm twelve since May." _

"_Really?! Wow, didn't see that coming. No offense, but you're kinda short."_

_Rolf didn't talk to her again until they were stuck on the ship to Begnion. _(End Flashback)

Gatrie literally fell over in surprise. "You're not twelve?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

"Yep! I'm fourteen now! The war ended a year ago! My birthday was two months ago." Rolf decided that if he acted cheerful, like he usually was, he might be able to calm his anger a little.

"WHAT?!! NO WAY IN HE-"

"We've arrived." Shinon broke in, pointing to the town just outside the forest ahead of them.

"YAY!!!!!!!!!!" Mia would have run straight into battle if Oscar hadn't grabbed hold of her orange dress collar.

Rolf dodged yet another ax before taking a step back and feathering the wielder. The bandit grasped his stomach where the arrow protruded and fell to the ground dead. Bodies were strewn everywhere. Ike had been wrong when he said that there were only a few bandits. There were about three dozen of them.

Mia was fairing well. She ran forward, hit her target, flew about twenty feet in the air, came down and did a back flip to soften her landing. Then without any hesitation at all, she threw her sword so that it flipped end over end in the air. She ran forward, jumped, caught the sword, flipped with it, and came down straight on another enemy's head. She had chosen to stay with the Greil mercenaries after the war so that she could learn Ike's style of fighting. It seemed that all her hard work was paying off.

Oscar charged his enemy on his horse and stabbed him in the throat. The man died nearly instantly, his body joining his buddies' on the ground. Then the lance knight turned his horse and stabbed another bandit through the chest. The green haired mercenary then twirled his lance around over his head and brought the weapon down into another enemy's stomach.

Gatrie was doing very well considering that his armor was impenetrable to nearly every attack the bandits threw at him. He would just stand there, wait for someone to attack him, and then impale the guy with his lance. Or his sword, depending on which one would do the most damage.

Shinon and Rolf however, were having a lot of trouble. Many of the bandits had seen the damage that Mia, Oscar, and Gatrie could inflict and chose instead to head for the two defenseless archers at the edge of the battlefield. Because of the vast number of enemies trying to hit them, Rolf and Shinon were having trouble firing their arrows. Rolf silently thanked the Goddess that they hadn't brought a healer with them. Mist and Rhys would probably have had a lot of trouble with this battle. Mist wasn't the best swordsman (or woman) in the world and Rhys would have trouble casting magic because of his low defense.

Shinon finally got a critical hit on someone. The guy fell to the ground with an arrow protruding from his throat. That scared a lot of the bandits around the sniper off. Only problem with this was that they all headed for Rolf, the next easiest target. The boy was completely overwhelmed and could hardly get an arrow in edge wise against the ax wielders. Thankfully, Rolf was used to problems like this because of the year- long- war that he had been a part of. None of the bandits could hit him because he was so fast. However, they were starting to surround him and move in closer in an attempt to corner him.

"Why… Don't… You… Stay… Still?!" A bandit growled with a swing of his ax between every word. The guy may have been strong, but he was slow. Rolf easily evaded his attacks. However, the circle of enemies around him was getting smaller and he couldn't draw his bow at all. Suddenly, the enemy that had taunted him fell over dead. Shinon had shot an arrow straight into the man's spine with another critical hit. He was quivering in anger.

"Let's see how you fare against someone when they're actually able to attack back." Rolf couldn't understand Shinon's emotions. He had never heard the older sniper so furious before. Shinon started firing as many arrows as he could. They all met their mark. Soon, Rolf was able to break free of the ring of bandits around him. Once he had gotten a couple yards away, Rolf's arrows joined Shinon's and all the bandits before the two of them had fallen down dead. They both backed up closer to the trees and started shooting other enemies down.

"Thanks for saving me uncle Shinon." Rolf shot another bandit to the ground. Shinon grunted in reply. Before long, Oscar came over to them. His horse was running wild, trampling all of the bandits in its path.

"Oscar?" Shinon sounded as surprised as Rolf felt. "What are you doing over here? Why don't you have your horse?"

"My lance broke. I still have plenty of arrows though." With that, Oscar pulled out his bow and started shooting down more bandits.

"It broke?! But that lance was brand new!" This was bad. If Oscar's lance had already broken, then there were more enemies than Rolf had anticipated. Looking around, he noticed that enemy reinforcements were entering the town from all sides. Gatrie was stabbing one of them when his lance tip broke. The knight pulled out his sword instead. Mia was in the middle of another critical hit when her sword shattered. Thankfully, she had another one on her. Shinon and Rolf were running out of arrows and none of the enemies were archers. On other words, the team was in dire straights.

Only when Shinon's bow cracked did Rolf realize the severity of the situation. Looking around, he got an idea. "Hey! Oscar! Shinon! Maybe we should shoot them from one of the trees!" He yelled over the shouting of the fighters.

"Good idea!" Oscar shouted back. Soon all three of the archer/ snipers were in the trees shouting at the enemies below them. It seemed that all of the reinforcements for the other side were already dead or on the battlefield and the numbers of bandits was slowly starting to thin. Gatrie's sword broke a second later, the pieces of it raining to the ground. The knight started then to swing the shaft of his broken lance around, giving many enemies broken noses.

Rolf got a critical hit for about the sixth times when he ran out of arrows. Shinon was using his spare bow. Oscar kept using his special ability, rejuvenating his depleted energy with his enemies. (In the game, whenever Oscar got turned into a paladin, he got this awesome ability a little later that allowed him to take the HP from an enemy that he hit.) Oscar allowed his younger brother to share his arrows, and soon the two were firing away again. Mia got a critical hit practically every turn she had and bandits were now fleeing from Gatrie to avoid getting hit with the stick he was swinging around at random. The tides had turned and the mercenaries were winning.

It was around sunset when all the bandits had either been killed or driven out. Not a moment to late too. Mia sword was cracked all the way down the blade to the hilt. Gatrie's lance shaft had long since been snapped into about thirty pieces. After that, the knight had just started charging at people along with Oscar's horse. Oscar, Rolf, and Shinon only had two arrows left between them and Rolf's bow was cracked in several places.

The town thanked them for their work over and over saying that their messenger to the mercenary fort hadn't noticed how many bandits there were.

After they got paid, the group started dragging themselves back to their fort. All of them were completely exhausted after such a long and furious battle. Gatrie kept asking Mia if she wanted him to carry her. The journey back seemed to be taking twice as long as it had when they had walked down it earlier that day.

"At least we're all okay." Oscar said after awhile.

"Pah. I knew we would win from the very beginning." Shinon was trying to sound like a leader, but it wasn't really working.

"But we're NOT all okay! My sword is in critical condition!" Mia held up her blade to confirm what she said was true.

"Yes but we're all alive," Rolf pointed out.

"What if the bandits that ran away attack us again on our way back to camp though?" Gatrie said without much thought.

Nobody answered for awhile. Then the place below where you stand now with fire broke loose.

"ARE YOU BLOOMING CRAZY?????!!!!! DON"T SAY THAT!!" Shinon yelled so loud that every bird in the forest took flight.

"YOU"LL JINX US!!!" Mia bellowed in fear.

"… Is it really that bad?" Gatrie seemed completely oblivious.

"**YES!"** They all shouted at once.

"Really?"

"It is a black prospect, yes." Oscar said calmly. His horse walked alongside him.

"What does that mean?"

"That it would be bad if anyone attacked us right now." Rolf answered.

"Oh."

They walked in silence for the rest of the trip back. When they reached the fort, Ike, Titania, Boyd, Mist, and Rhys were looking worriedly at the trees. When the mercenaries emerged from the forest, they were faced with many hugs and questions. "I- I was s-so worried!" Tears were forming at the corners of Mist's eyes as she wrapped her arms around Rolf. "I thought I had lost you."

Rolf just stood there, not quite sure what to do. "Uh… Mist? I'm okay. See? I'm fine." But Mist didn't move. She just kept crying. Rolf's shirt was soon soaking wet. Shinon was telling Ike what had happened. Boyd was strangling Oscar for making him worry so much. Titania was walking away from Gatrie at a very fast pace for unknown reasons, and Mia was slumped on the ground examining her sword. The night progressed like that until everyone was in bed. Mist had ended falling asleep right when her head had hit her pillow. Rolf however, just couldn't keep his eyes closed.

At the battle, he had been scared most of the time. Particularly when he had been surrounded. The truth was, if Shinon hadn't been there, Rolf would probably have been dead by now. The entire weight of this realization pressed down on the boy. He just lie there in bed, not sure what to think. He thought that he was past the stage of trembling on the battlefield.

Voices started to emanate from the hall outside the door after a few minutes. Rolf heard his name and started listening. It sounded like Oscar and Boyd were arguing.

"I don't think he should fight anymore! Think about what could have happened today!" That was Boyd's voice.

"I think he has the right to choose for himself." Oscar was still able to keep his calm even though he was being yelled at. Amazing.

"Yeah, but-"

"Don't worry about Rolf. He's gotten a lot better at fighting. You should have seen him today. He took down just as many, if not more, enemies than the rest of us did."

"Oscar, I'm not saying that he's not a good fighter, but what if…. What if…. I don't want to lose him. I can't."

"I don't want to either, but I think that it's essential that he do this and make his own choices. We won't always be there for him. He needs to know what it's going to be like when he grows up and we're gone. It's our job as his older brothers to show him this and to help him through it before he gets to used to us always being there for him. He needs to grow up. I think fighting alongside his comrades will help him with that."

Rolf stopped listening and started to think. Oscar seemed to trust him on the battlefield. Boyd was the one that was overprotective. That seemed odd somehow, but the more that he thought of what his older brothers had said, the more Rolf seemed to think that Oscar was right. Gatrie's words kept crowding themselves in the boy's head as well. The knight hadn't known how old Rolf was. Could it be that Ike and Titania, the other two that babied him, didn't know either? Rolf doubted that Titania wouldn't know, but somehow, it didn't seem impossible that Ike would have no clue.

Rolf rolled over and attempted to fall asleep again. This time, he thought of Shinon calling him smart. That had been a shock. However, it was true. Ever since the war had started two years ago, Rolf had learned what it meant to die, to lose people close to you. He sincerely hoped that that never happened. He didn't want to lose Shinon, Oscar, Boyd, Mist…

Rolf finally fell asleep. Somewhere in his mind, he understood Boyd's mindset. He could have lost many people that day if they all hadn't been careful. Shinon probably had realized this too when Rolf had been surrounded. That might explain why the sniper got so mad.

The pain of someone close to dying… It's, as Oscar said, a black prospect.

A black prospect indeed.

For those of you who thought that that was incredibly horrible, I'm sorry. I'm not going to do a oneshot next time, so it won't sound as crammed or end as abruptly. Please review. Please? I'm sorry if Shinon is a little OOC, but I wanted to make it a point that he really cares about Rolf. Boyd might be a little off too… By the way, Gatrie was supposed to be a doofus. I was thinking about the support Gatrie and Shinon had where Gatrie was being stupid and buying all that worthless junk. So anyway, I'll write another story. Give me ideas for pairings if you want, but I've already got a few lined up, so I might not use them. Sorry! Also, would someone please tell me what OCC means? I don't use the computer much unless I'm reading or writing.


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